Zev Eleff has devised a fruitful and interesting way of describing developments within American Orthodox communities and the tensions between the Modern Orthodox and the Orthodox Right. He focuses on the quest for authenticity, a concern that has been central in the United States since the early nineteenth century. Authenticity in religion is a subjective judgement rendered by adherents who believe there is a correct form of beliefs and practices unsullied by financial, political, and external cultural influences. One might think that for Orthodox Jews conformity to Halakhah determines authenticity. Eleff repeatedly shows, however, that among the Orthodox the charge of inauthenticity is leveled against an innovation when religious authorities deem it problematic but cannot fault the innovation on halakhic grounds; they therefore delegitimize it by declaring it new and contrary to Torah values. The Modern Orthodox, who have sought explicitly to incorporate elements of American liberal culture into their lives, have been most often accused of initiating inauthentic practices even though all Orthodox Jewish communities have developed new rituals, pedagogies, and rules. Furthermore, Eleff argues that scholars have underestimated the extent of American religious culture's influence on Orthodox Judaism, a corrective he demonstrates.
Authentically Orthodox is not a historical narrative. It consists of nine case studies, each constituting a separate chapter focusing on a separate post–World War II innovation. Eleff arranges these in three sections. Part 1, “Halakhah and Change,” examines kitniyot prohibitions on Passover, the Bat Mitzvah, and the yarmulke. Part 2 deals with the changed image of Orthodoxy in response to a Yeshiva University student team's victory in a College Bowl program on national TV, the creation of toys and games for Haredi children, and the life span of a Modern Orthodox Baltimore yeshiva. Part 3 focuses on “protected male space” through Yeshiva University regulation of co-ed social events, women's engagement in Torah study, and separate women's prayer groups. Each chapter can stand alone.
Strictly speaking, none of the innovations were in violation of or required by Halakhah. For example, the case study on the yarmulke shows that in the 1960s American Orthodox Jews began to consider it imperative for men to wear a yarmulke during their waking hours no matter their activity, a position at variance with halakhic codes; they also began to describe the practice as a proud display of Jewish identity—certainly an American interpretation. In the 1980s, when the obligation to wear a yarmulke conflicted with a high school basketball league's rules prohibiting head coverings during playoffs, a yeshiva high school's leaders and supporters mounted a legal challenge. (The importance they attached to the sport is also an obvious sign of Americanization.) In Menora v. Illinois High School Association, the plaintiffs claimed that the prohibition violated the students' First Amendment Free Exercise right, and they won the two-year battle. At about the same time, some Orthodox rabbis and organizations began to oppose the long-standing Jewish community stance that the Constitution's Establishment Clause required strict separation of church and state and precluded state aid to religious schools. For this and related issues, the Orthodox were aligning themselves with Christian conservatives and asserting their distinctive American Orthodox identity. Similarly, in “Mitzvah Merchants and the Creation of an Orthodox Children's Culture,” Eleff describes the school contests, trading cards, and toys developed by Orthodox educators that parallel those made by evangelical Christian educators. Both groups share the conviction that children's games should be “practice” for authentically religious adults. Their alternatives to American youth culture nevertheless promote the “American” values of competition, individual achievement, and acquisitiveness.
Eleff's frequent references to American religious history and historiography make his treatment of American Orthodox Judaism especially insightful. For example, in his chapter on Orthodox Bat Mitzvah ceremonies, Eleff builds upon the observation by historian Frederick Jackson Turner (and Shari Rabin's application of it to nineteenth-century American Jews) that there has always been more tolerance of religious innovation in “frontier” regions than in the older “core” region. In the former, Americans have been likelier to reject the “stuffy” forms of “elite religion” and, by dint of necessity and the greater cohesion exhibited in these areas, develop hybrid rituals. Eleff identifies the tri-state (NY, NJ, CT) region as “core” in the 1950s. Orthodox rabbis in frontier areas fostered a Bat Mitzvah ceremony because it kept their members in the fold and helped them compete with Conservative Judaism while not violating Halakhah. They ignored repeated denunciations of the Orthodox Bat Mitzvah by tri-state Orthodox rabbis. Eventually, the ceremony was deemed authentic as long as it was not held during the regular prayer service and did not require girls to perform rituals considered the province of males. In this chapter and one on women's Talmud study, Eleff explains why it is the American context that makes some expansions of women's religious practices controversial in the United States while not prompting the same denunciations in Israel.
Other features of Authentically Orthodox make it a welcome contribution to the field. In nearly every chapter, Eleff pays attention to the changed gender norms in America that have shaped the lived daily experiences of men and women. His insights build upon recent works in sociology and gender studies. Eleff's resources are deep and rich: he has located crucial and fascinating material in fifteen community and private archives; perused Yiddish, Hebrew, and English primary-source newspapers, periodicals, and collections; provided accessible summaries of halakhic issues; and consulted a wide range of secondary literature. His ample references are a great resource for scholars, as is his introductory chapter laying out how and why his methodological approach contrasts with other academic treatments of Orthodox Judaism in the modern era. Despite its sophistication, Authentically Orthodox is a very readable book and would be excellent contribution to undergraduate courses in religious studies, Jewish studies, and American religious history.
